Leave It To Cleaver

February 11, 1986|By blue

Don't look now, but the diverse group of would-be senators from California just became more, uh, diverse. The Republicans hoping to face Sen. Alan Cranston had included one supply-side economist, one TV commentator, one ex-police chief, one congresswoman, one Fess Parker and several other notables. Now here comes Eldridge Cleaver.

Mr. Cleaver has experience in politics, having run for president in 1968 and for the Berkeley city council in 1984. His resume also includes the best seller Soul on Ice, the Black Panther Party, exile in Algeria, conversion to Christianity and an effort to redesign men's pants. Unlike a politician trying to be all things to all people, here's a guy who actually has been almost everything.

Indeed, he has the power to make the rest of the field -- including the candidate who just got indicted -- seem plain.